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The Tao Colorist Curated links of news, reviews, thoughts, career advice, and humor for professional Video / Film Colorists & Finishers. Delivered Sunday. Issue CLXXXIV
A TaoOfColor.com Publication Publisher: Pat Inhofer Managing Editor: Jim Wicks
From the Publisher |
- Did you have trouble with the links in this Newsletter this past week? The Tao Colorist Newsletter's email provider was under a DDOS attack several times this week - rendering the clicks... dead. I apologize in advance if this continues to happen. If so, I'll consider switching email providers - but
I don't think it'll be necessary.
See you next week. Happy Grading! |
The Craft |
- Honor and Craft - Cinematographer Shane Hurlbut insight about finding the honor and discipline to do what you
do. It's not the how, it's the why. Click through for some great video embeds and sage advice. (hurlbutvisuals)
- [pdf] Cinematic Color - lots of great information and resources for Colorists, including an introduction to the color pipelines behind modern feature-film visual-effects and animation. (cinematiccolor)
- [video] The Craftsmanship of Harold Ramis - One of the best comedic filmmakers of my lifetime passed away. This is a great write-up of his genius epitomized by a clip from the best scene in 'Groundhog Day'. (esquire.com via @abelcine) Although the Stay Puft Marshmellow Man will always be my favorite Ramis comedic moment. That initial tracking shot is brilliant.
- Unexpectedly Gorgeous: The Teal and Mustard Wedding Palette - like the headline says. (colourlovers.com)
- Movies in Color: The Oscars Edition - the movie color palette website has been covering the Oscars. Check out those palettes. (moviesincolor.com via Julian Gil)
- Visitors: 4K, Black and White, and the solar plexus - this blog post presents three videos of the intriguing film 'Visitors'. Personally, I recommend watching them in reverse order from how they're presented. The 2nd video comments on how Black and White changes the audience's relationship with cinema. As Spock would say, "Fascinating." (nofilmschool.com)
- And 'The Best Grade' Winner Is... - In this blog post Team
Mixing Light discusses how they selected the winner of BloodyCuts' short film contest BCHorrorChallenge. We also highlight the runner-ups. (mixinglight.com)
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The Tools |
- DCP 24fps flicker while panning - discussion on how to solve this problem. (liftgammagain.com)
- 2013 Mac Pro Certified: Avid Media Composer, Symphony - read the announcement. (groups.yahoo.com)
- Opting Out of Dropbox's Arbitration Clause - got Dropbox? You
have less than 30 days to opt out of a clause that forces you to go through Arbitration rather than the court system in any dispute. (daringfireball.net)
- Review: DaVinci Resolve 10 - now that its been out a few months, Oliver Peters offers up a fresh review of this new version. (creativeplanetnetwork.com)
- FCPx: When to use optimized, native or proxy media - because more and more colorists will need to understand this for effective client communication. (larryjordan.biz)
- The Hand-Over Library Workflow in
FCPx - I had trouble following this workflow. But Chris Fenwick thought it was good, so it's probably just me. Hence, this blog post made the Newsletter. (eggermedia.squarespace.com via @chrisfenwick)
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The Business |
- [video] Life After Pi - Featured in last week's newsletter, here's the official documentary. (youtube.com)
- 4K trends - it's a curious thing. In the Netherlands, 4K TVs are outselling OLED TVs 45 to 1. (hdtvtest.co.uk)
- Is password sharing a threat to streaming video? - it's becoming an issue for Wall Street. But what about HBO and Netflix? (stopthecap)
- Sony Leads Global 4K TV market - but Samsung is catching up. (hdtvtest.co.uk)
- America's next Wal-Mart: The Indie Film Industry - this overlord believes we must stop making indie films, if we know what's good for us. (salon.com)
- Revenge of the VFX Department - how the MPAA's anti-piracy campaign may
finally trigger automatic US government retaliation against countries that offer tax credits to filmmakers and distort the free market. This is a great read on how tax subsidies are being implemented-with some countries picking up the majority of post-production salaries. (pando.com via @Paul_Harb)
- What's wrong with the VFX Industry - after reading this article, the industry's inability to disentangle the 'tax subsidy' issue from the
'flat-bid unlimited revisions' issue seems their biggest problem. (siggraph.org)
- Avid Delisted, promises brighter future - good article that covers some initial bad reporting on Avid's latest announcement regarding their NASDAQ delisting. I didn't realize they haven't issued a financial statement in over 2 years. (createdigitalmusic.com)
- Why the super-fast internet is coming super slowly - in the United States. Who would have guessed? The FCC is both the solution and the problem. (online.wsj.com)
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Friends & Family |
MixingLight.com is a companion membership website to TaoOfColor.com. Want to read a story listed here but not a member? A free 24-hour test drive is available. - DaVinci Resolve: Understanding 'Output Sizing' - The Sizing menu is what I call 'one of DaVinci Resolve's logical fallicies', in that it seems like it should be node-based but isn't. This Insight is about how to keyframe Output Sizing... and how not to. (mixinglight.com)
- Grading Composites in DaVinci Resolve - How to color correct picture-in-picture effects in a single self-contained movie. (mixinglight.com)
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What's Happening: NAB 2014 |
- Colorist Mixer - You're invited! Join Tao Of Color, Mixing Light and the International Colorist Academy for an evening of food, drink and geeky conversation. This is a
great time to put a face and voice all those Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and LiftGammaGain names you've been following and interacting with. Free registration. Sunday, April 6, 7:30p - 11:30p. Click for full details and to sign-up. (eventbrite.com)
- Get your Exhibits-Only Pass - If you haven't already, register for your Exhibits-Only Pass. Use this registration code from Flanders Scientific:
LV2623 (registration3.experientevent.com)
- Las Vegas SuperMeet - The Mega-Ball of User Groups, with the biggest raffle of them all. Join hundreds and hundreds of your peers at this annual event. See you there! (eventbrite.com)
- Media Motion Ball - The grand-daddy of networking events for post-production pros, it's a sit-down dinner with a who's-who of attendees. A great time. They have limited seats so I recommend you sign up now. I just did. (eventbrite.com)
- Las Vegas Monorail Pass Discounts - there are fewer multi-day options with these discounted tickets but you'll save a few bucks. (tickets.lvmonorail.com) Or check out the non-NAB monorail ticket page - for a few extra dollars you may find a plan more suited to the length of your stay. (tickets.lvmonorail.com) Either way, it's a heck of a lot easier than the ridiculous waits (and fewer choices) buying a pass when you're in Vegas.
- NAB Survival Guide, 2014 Edition - Toolfarm's Michele Yamazaki updates this classic guide for 2014. Includes tips on transportation options, surviving the show floor, spouses plus includes links to other Survival Guides. (toolfarm.com)
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Outside 'The Box' |
- FAA is losing the Drone War - this article explores the essential question for any filmmaker flying drones for commercial purposes... if the exact same activity is legal for a hobbyist but illegal the moment that hobbyist turns it into a profit-making enterprise-what's the safety issue that suddenly makes it illegal to profit from that activity? (politico.com)
- [video] 3D Printing is revolutionizing VFX - FANTASTIC video on how 3D printing is being used for fast prototyping. (youtu.be via @AotgNetwork)
- Understanding sensor crop factors - the crop factor and size of a digital sensor affects numerous image characteristics, including depth of field, angle of view and cropping, each with their own trade-offs.
(red)
- [video] True Detective - filmmaker Vincent Laforet blogs his appreciation for the long-take. In particular, the phenomenal one shot from the new HBO series, True Detective.' Be sure to watch the embeds to gain insight into how they pulled it off - and on film, no less. (blog.vincentlaforet)
- [video] Best. Breakdown. Ever. - Shane Hurlbut, ASC, has 18 feature films to his credit. He does a camera and lens breakdown for his latest, Need for Speed. Blink, and you'll miss it. (vimeo)
- [video] Behind the Scenes of Gravity - the production team discusses how they used Media Composer and Pro Tools to reach new heights in filmmaking. (apps.avid.com)
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Edumacate Yer'self |
- DIT University - Light Iron adds 2 new online video tutorials about Mobile Post file-based workflows. And you can't argue the price. The lessons are free. (lightiron)
- Pre-Order: Avid Uncut - workflows, tips and techniques from Hollywood pros. Includes a section for FCP
editors looking to transition to Avid. The author, Steve Hullfish, is one of my favorites! Book should be available at NAB, if you'll be there. Looks like the Kindle version is available now. (amazon)
- 11th Annual Pre-NAB roundtable discussion - at the Editor's Lounge in Los Angeles. Friday March 21.
(editorslounge.com)
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Current Colorist Control Surface Drivers |
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Sunday Morning Fun(nies) |
- [video] Easy as 1-2-3 - Can you figure out the rule behind this sequence of three numbers? (youtube)
- [video] Mario Seinfeld - are you missing the 90's? Here's the Super Mario/Seinfeld parody that you weren't expecting. Or missing. (youtube)
- [video] 'Happy' - in this 24 hour video by Pharrell Williams, you can change the time of day (really, it's 24 videos strung together, all in sync with each one and all shot in one take, nicely done). I like the song too. (24hoursofhappy)
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Gear Heads |
- FSI NAB B-Stock Sale - If you're in the
market for a pro reference display, Tao Colorist Newsletter sponsor Flanders Scientific is running their annual NAB sale. Purchase a display used during the NAB trade show at a big discount. "FSI will clean and inspect every B-Stock unit before sending it on to the new owner". Especially tempting is the OLED at an additional $1,000 discount-after their $6,000 price drop earlier this year. (shopfsi.com)
- Comparison test - 'late 2013' Mac Pro 8-core 3.0GHz vs 'early 2009' Mac Pro 8-core 2.93GHz. (barefeats)
- Rackmount for the 2013 Mac Pro tube - (fcmtl.com)
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New Kid on the Block |
- Rough Enough: Looping Textures - free HD
textures and 4K versions at a ridiculously low price. Created by a Tao Colorist Newsletter reader. (lindsayhorner.com)
- Adobe Camera Raw: Release Candidate - new update release adds 'before/after' previews, additional lens support and numerous bug fixes. (appleinsider)
- Updated: Redcine-X Pro - Build 23.2 beta adds Advance Dragon Debayering, CUDA and OpenCL. (reduser.net via @r3duser)
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Getting Ahead |
- The 411 on getting a life - do you try
and catch up on email every night? Yeah, you should probably stop that. (99u)
- You've got mail - just in case the story above didn't convince you, here's another. This time, from the Harvard Business Review no less. Do we detect a trend? (blogs.hbr)
- Clutter is as clutter does - it's not just a messy desk, office, or whatever. It's the stuff that clogs up your days that keeps you disorganized. Click through to learn 11 ways that you can de-clutter your day. (inc)
- Do this, don't do this - this really should be titled 10 Easy Ways to Drive Yourself Crazy at Work. You'll know why when you read #4 and #7. They cancel each other out. (forbes)
- How to accept and decline job offers - deciding to quit your job is one thing. Hopefully it's preceded by an offer to move to another company. Sage advice before you jump ship. (lifehacker)
- How to sign
documents digitally - using Apple's Preview to put signatures on PDFs, Pages documents and Mail messages. (9to5mac)
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Tweet(s) of the Week |
- My granddaughter visited last night.
"River, what would you like to do?" She replies: "Watch TV... we used up the internet at our house."
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Showcase |
- [video] Dove Commercial - Swapnil Patole is a busy Colorist. He graded this commercial in Resolve. He wrote us to describe his challenges: "Change the color of the hair and keep the continuity in all shots. Balance the background light. Keep the skin tone looking natural, with a touch of glamour to it. Shot on Alexa, RED Epic, and Phantom Flex. (vimeo)
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The Next Step is a Doozy |
- [video] Statues in Motion - at first glance this is a mind bender, like a flashback to a 60's acid trip. (vimeo)
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A Step Too Far? |
- How Silicon Valley's CEO's conspired to drive down wages -
by enforcing illegal non-recruitment deals with each other. (pando.com)
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Th- Th- That's ALL Folks! See you next week. Happy Grading!
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The Book Shelf
- Color Correction Handbook, Updated - Alexis Van Hurkman has updated his Color Correction Handbook, which has set the standard for learning all things color correction. (amazon.com)
- Color Correction Look Book - This is the second part of the Color Correction Handbook, exploring the creative techniques for over 200 different visual looks. A sort-of recipe book for colorists. (amazon.com)
- The Art and Technique of Digital Color Correction - Read how a dozen different colorists grade the same footage with the same gear, differently. A fantastic approach to learning the craft of color grading by Steve Hullfish. (amazon.com)
- Autodesk Smoke Essentials - Walk through grading a short sci-fi film (with downloadable ProRes4444 source material) while learning the ultimate online finishing app... Autodesk Smoke. (amazon.com)
- Color Grading with Avid and Symphony - Written for version 6. Fully applicable to version 7. I was a contributor. (amazon.com)
- Adobe Speedgrade CC: Classroom in a Book - A solid book for a solid grading app. (amazon.com)
Have a book you think should be in this list? Reply to this email and let me know! FCC Disclaimer: Links in this email to Amazon.com, B&H Photo, or ToolFarm.com are Affiliate links that help support the TaoOfColor.com. FSI and SpectraCal are paid sponsors and BlackMagic Design
is a current client. We thank you for your support.
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Published by:
Patrick Inhofer: Photon-Wrangler, Fini.tv | TaoOfColor.com | MixingLight.com
patrick@taoofcolor.com
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